Challenge/Focus/Strike is a shorthand method for
describing l5r plots. You'll find lots of them in sidebars in books, and
there's a big repository of them on the 'net. They're useful little one-session
plotlines, good for when you've got gaps between big plots. The Challenge
is the set-up, the Focus are the complications, and the Strike is the big
climax at the end.

As I've said before, Timing is a key element of GMing.
In this case, perhaps Pacing would be a better term. While C/F/Ss are supposed
to fill only one session, that sort of episodic play will lead to a flat
campaign. If every game session is entirely self-contained, the game begins
to feel like Star Trek. Miss a week? No problem, things will be just the
same next week, new planet new plot. You need to stagger material over
several game sessions, to ensure there's a measure of plot continuity.
At the same time, though, it's bad to have plot stuff too spread out. If
nothing seems to happen in a session, if there's no climax, then the campaign
seems just as flat as the episodic campaign. Instead of having lots of
small, self-contained plots, you've got one big long one. The best games
have lots of small-to-medium sized plots which combine and contribute to
the big one.

The third session of Giri prompted me to write
this, because it threw the whole pacing issue into the limelight. The plot-lines
coming in from the last session were:

Abashmori the Tainted Guy in the forest

A Crane ratling

The upcoming war between the Loyalists and the Shogunate.

What happened in the session:

The party tricked Abashimori using the standard he wanted, and killed him
with Tomb of Jade.

The Crane ratling was taken by Shosuro Tamari. He infused the ratling with
the same ninja-spirits that were in Haruko, and used the ratling as a test
subject. Haruko was intended to be a living trap for the Phoenix, he made
the ratling a living trap for the other rats.

A Scorpion army marched off to fight the Crane.

Junzo opened a Black Scroll to nuke Beiden Pass.

The Abashimori plotline worked fine. Abashimori had
been set up in the first session, with the pcs catching sight of a Tainted
Guy in the forest. His motivation (I want the standard) had been established.
The PCs came up with a plan in the second session and implemented it in
the third. Fine.

The Ratling plotline, on the other hand, was messed
up. I brought in the ratling in session 2 and killed him in session 3.
It also gave much too much away about Haruko's past and destiny. It should
have just foreshadowed Haruko. As it was, it was practically a rehearsal.
What I should have done was apply the Challenge/Focus/Strike timing
to that plot.

The challenge is the initial establishment
of the plotline. All it needs to be is a single event which introduces
the PCs to the plotline. It could be nothing more than finding a burnt-out
campfire (showing that there's someone out in the forest) or a letter warning
of a Lion army mustering at Humility's Lesson. To avoid plotlines coming
out of nowhere and annoying players, there must be a proper challenge.
You can of course be as subtle as you like, and misdirect the players,
but no big event should come entirely out of nowhere unless it's an important
aspect of the event.

The focus is the development of the plot established
by the challenge. During the focus, the plotline becomes (pardon the pun)
the focus of the campaign. The majority of the game session should be devoted
to that plot.

Finally, the strike is the climax and ending
of the plot. Strikes should generally be big, dramatic scenes.

The key to the timing is to ensure challenge and
strike never happen in the same setting. The size of the strike should
be proportional to the length of the challenge.

It's a pretty simple and obvious technique, but it's
one that should be remembered and used. I forgot it, and the session suffered
as a result.